A Functional Perspective on Narrative in Computer Games - Wolf Maul

environment is similar to that of role-playing games (social gatherings where the player enacts
a character within an imagined world moderated by the dungeon master or game manager).
In his book Shared Fantasy (1983) Gary Fine uses social theory to describe games as
interactions within a bounded set of social conventions. Fine – currently at Northwestern
University – has written, contributed to, and edited a number of books on social psychology
and social theory. He adapts the concept of frame analysis, as outlined by Erving Goffman, to
describe how different perception frames, or concepts of self, are experienced by the player
during the course of game play. Fine discusses the relationship between player identities, as
well as the stability of the frames, as based on the level of engrossment, and I found his model
well suited as a framework for describing perceptions of game play.
Perception frames describe the player’s perspectives on a game during play. As such they
are subjective and variable, adapting to shifting contexts and to changes within the player.
Frames are a way for the player to sort and organize information about the current
circumstances, providing cues about how to act or respond. Just as people may see themselves
differently, and act accordingly, in response to a variety of situations in day-to-day life, players
can adjust to accommodate a number of different roles during game play, either switching
between perspectives or existing in them simultaneously.
There are three frame-sets that describe the player experience: the person/world frame, the
player/game frame, and the player-character/fiction frame. These categories correspond to the
three frames that Fine observed and describes in role-playing games.
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